I've read a heap of RR's from that part of the world, funny thing is .. they're all different !! IT"S FANTASTIC .. it's like .... 15 witness descriptions of a suspect = 15 different descriptions .. unreal !!

I was keen to watch the time-lapse vid .. .. NO ACCESS .. can this be fixed at your end ??

I have to sympathize with the luggage situation ... it sucks .. bit of a raw deal for sure. I haul a purpose-built trailer, no drama.

We got off the ferry around 1pm and then sat in the parking lot for the usual 30-45 minutes of Gino doing his RocStrap dance. Everyday he tries to find a better way to lash the luggage.

Those of you with actual panniers should take a moment to offer silent thanks for something you probably take for granted. I have to lash down four bags on top of my panniers but that's a pretty quick process. Once we were loaded up we rode 200 meters up the road to the obligatory "Welcome to..." sign. Notice I'm saying meters - just trying to fit in here. It helps that the new speedo I put in the bike has turned out to be just as flakey as the one I replaced. It switches between k/hr and mph every hour or so which, I have to say, is turning out to be a great learning aid.

And, yes, we're all wearing new Revit stuff - I've been a gear tester for them for years and they thought the trip would be a good proving ground for some new stuff which we're supposed to abuse and then return for evaluation. It's nice to not have to abuse my own gear for a change.

Just down the road we met up with Jeff Smith as I mentioned and here's a shot of us together just before we jumped on the trail. Of course it's blurry because I didn't set my complicated pro gear to "easy" before I handed it off to Jeff's friend to snap the shot - you get the idea though right?

Jeff was riding the beautiful FZ1 in the background but not on the trials. We were told the trail wouldn't be too bad but there would be some sections we'd probably want the girls to walk through - yup. Here's an idea of what the start of this adventure looked like as we got ready:

That is some narrow trail. Gino and I ride single track all the time but we do it on dirt bikes not two up with luggage and passengers! I was sure we'd drop the bikes 10 feet off the trail as Jeff was photographing us leaving but we managed fine. The trail is loose crushed rock with some sections of what we call in Colorado "baby heads" which are round rocks about the size of grapefruits which are a real bitch. The first few hundred meters were sketchy as we got the feel for the big bikes on the loose stone and it took a while to relax and let the bars just dance in your hands as the front wheel wandered in the gravel. Oh, and water - did I mention the water?

The trail was a bit whooped and we learned the best way to handle it was for us to stand as a couple so the girls got a very fast lesson in the technique of riding whoops with your legs and pushing the bike down into the bottom and absorbing as it bucks up. There was no way to go fast enough to skim them as the bikes were just too damn big and heavy so about 20-25mph was about the fastest we could go. It was one of the most beautiful trails I've ever ridden and made the entire trip to Newfoundland completely worth it. Here's a pano that gives you an idea of what the scenery was like.

And, hopefully, here's a video to give you an idea of what riding it was like. In a word - challenging.

After an hour or two of the trail we thought we'd perhaps made a wrong turn as we were getting farther and farther from the highway so when we crossed another road we decided to get back on and look for some food and fuel. Around these parts the two go together.

I love a gas pump in the middle of nowhere. It's just so damn big and empty here.

While Gino was topping up and the girls were zipping in liners I was discovering my collection of loose or missing fasteners. The trail had vibrated the pannier mount loose and I'd lost the lower engine mount completely. I'd felt the bike shudder when I'd feather the clutch and now I knew why. An 8x150mm bolt was going to be difficult to find and I decided to forego more railbed until we fixed that little problem. While working on the bike I was hit on by one of the local ladies. Betty loved the way we looked and asked to come along and didn't care a bit when I explained I already had a girlfriend, "Oh, too bad for her - your mine now!"

The locals have been beyond friendly and kind and I don't think we could feel more welcome here. We've noticed a lot of waving and it's hard to take off the helmet without getting into a conversation of where we're from and where we're going.

After all the damp trail riding we needed a good warm meal and this brings us to "Poutine" which is the Canadian way of one upping the American heart attack on a plate called cheese fries by adding gravy! Judiaann is a chef, food writer and the culinary director for a company called iSi so food is her passion and so we try everything we haven't seen before which includes poutine and cod tongues. We liked poutine better.

I also finally figured out the difference between Labrador and Newfoundland since the maps have both written on both the island and the mainland. I'm dim perhaps but Newfoundland is the island and Labrador is the mainland but they're both part of the same province called Newfoundland Labrador. Glad that's settled.

So we jumped on the TCH (Trans Canadian Highway) and gingerly headed into Clarenville where we found a Canadian Tire - the Canadian version of Home Depot and Pep Boys wrapped up in one. I was hopeful that there'd be this massive collection of metric fasteners to choose from but no such luck - the same pre packaged cheap SAE fasteners you find in the states. Needless to say there was no 8x150mm bolt but I found some 3/8" all thread and some nylocks and washers and bought a cheap hacksaw to cut it down to fit. While I don't consider this a permanent solution it should get me home. We have a saying back at our shop - once you bring out the vise grips you've already lost so you might as well just get the hammer. I think fixing the bike with all-thread, a cresent and a pair of vise grips was a good save all things considered.

Oh, and xbdx the 17/19 wheels with the Distansas are working just great. Judiaann and I managed to drag the pegs a few times on the Cabot trail which would never have been possible on knobs and yet, as the video shows, we did just fine on the dirt. I'm really impressed with the tires. Of course it doesn't hurt that I've got an extra 200-250lbs on the back wheel for traction. Let me publicly say that more than half of that is cameras and luggage - Judiaann may be gaining weight but she's still not much over 110lbs.

Well, I have more video but it doesn't look good for this trip since the internet gets slower as we head north and this connection is truly glacial. I'll do what I can.

The internet is working this morning but very slow so I thought I'd post up a video from the Cabot trail. The 950 is a joy to ride and this sort of behavior, while never done intentionally I swear to you, can happen accidentally.

That is all for now. We're in Newfoundland and met an ADV rider named, I may get this wrong too, Jeff Smith? Just after we got off the ferry. He'd met up with a friend who was on our boat and in talking with him we told him how much we wanted to ride some of the rail trail system. He told us there was an entrance just down the road and led us to a narrow, gravelly double track and gave us some directions.

Geoff the local NL guy here, checking in on you. I finally found your thread...

It was good to meet you all in Argentia. I'm glad you enjoyed the first section of the trail that I got you started on, and I hope that nasty wash-out I warned you about didn't give the big bikes too much trouble.

Here's some shots I took of you, and a short clip of you riding your first few hundred feet of off road in Newfoundland...

Quote:

Jeff was riding the beautiful FZ1 in the background but not on the trails. We were told the trail wouldn't be too bad but there would be some sections we'd probably want the girls to walk through - yup.

Here's a couple of shots of that wash-out you had to deal with, soon after you hit the trail, so people on here can better see what you were dealing with. These were taken just last week, so the conditions would have been the same as when you passed through there.